Monday, August 01, 2005

Another 'Referee verdict' for India

"Nehra pleaded guilty to the charge of celebrating the dismissal before the umpire had made his decision and of not turning around and appealing to the umpire," the ICC said in a statement forwarded by Sri Lanka Cricket on Monday. This in rediff . And he was fined for excessive appealing ! Aren't cricket rules wonderful. Especially the 'new' ones.

What I would like to see is 'appealing frequency' of each and every bowler in the past 10 ODIs of all countries to see who all exceeded this limit. And how many were punished. I am not intending here that this is again a consipiracy against India (which is topic of debate for some other time), but surely there is inconsistency. And that too, in a matter which could easily have been resolved with clear set of directives, and strict instructions to match referees to impose the rules in ALL conditions. Not leaving much on their judgement.